NEW SOCIALIST “IT GIRL” CONTINUES TO PAY DIVIDENDS: AOC Gets Blasted For Telling Dan Crenshaw To Do Something About Terrorists (Crenshaw Shows Class).
Archive for 2019
April 13, 2019
CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Court halts public housing gun ban, big win for Ill. rape victim.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE:
MATTHEW CONTINETTI: The Liberal Media ‘Matrix:’ Covington, Smollett, Mueller, Avenatti and other adventures in unreality.
I used to laugh every time I heard someone like Elon Musk say that we are living in a Matrix-like simulation. These days, not so much.
Don’t call the funny farm just yet. On the major question of the nature of sense experience, I remain with Aristotle and against Bishop Berkeley. Matter is real. But there is also the question of how we perceive “the news”; how established media institutions present and frame information; how we are supposed to respond to the “takes” purportedly expert and knowledgeable voices serve up to us by the second on social media. And here, I’m skeptical.
It’s hard not to be. Think of the headlines we’ve encountered since the beginning of this year. We were told the Covington Catholic boys were smug racist Trump supporters on the basis of a snippet of video. A young man, a private citizen, whose only offense was traveling to Washington, D.C., to march for life, was transformed at light speed into a symbol of hate and systemic oppression. However, just as Nick Sandmann’s reputation as a villain was about to set in stone, additional videos revealed that the students’ encounter with a far-left American Indian activist and the Black Hebrew Israelites was far more complicated than initially reported. The Covington Catholic boys had been smeared. People who cast themselves as agents of professional knowledge, expertise, and moral authority had circulated and amplified a lie in the service of a political agenda. Not for the first nor last time.
We were told Jussie Smollett, a rising gay African-American actor and singer, had been the victim of a hate crime committed by MAGA-hat-wearing Trump supporters in the dead cold of a Chicago night. Journalists and bloggers who asked questions about Smollett’s story were decried as bigots, even as key details went missing and the shifting timeline became more and more curious. Then the city’s African-American police commissioner announced Smollett had been arrested for orchestrating a bizarre hoax. The state’s attorney filed charges—charges subsequently dropped after behind-the-scenes lobbying by Michelle Obama’s former chief of staff.
We were told that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin were in cahoots to hack the emails of the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign; that Trump might have been a Russian agent since the late 1980s; that the key to the conspiracy might be a server in Trump Tower relaying information to a Russian bank; that the indictment of Donald Trump Jr. was imminent; that Trump Sr., according to the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, had committed “treason”; that Michael Cohen had met with Russian intelligence operatives in Prague; that Trump had directed Michael Flynn to speak to the Russians prior to Election Day 2016; that Trump had instructed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress; that Paul Manafort had met with Julian Assange in the Ecuadoran embassy in London during the campaign; that secret indictments in an Alexandria courthouse would be unsealed on the day Robert Mueller filed his report on possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. None of it happened.
We were told that Michael Avenatti, a trial attorney who appeared seemingly out of nowhere to represent Stephanie Clifford, aka “Stormy Daniels,” in her (tossed-out) defamation suit against Donald Trump, was a defender of the rule of law and election integrity who posed, in the words of Stephen Colbert, an “existential threat” to the Trump presidency.
To paraphrase Han Solo, we’ve been told an awful lot.
CLOWARD AND PIVEN SMILE: Alan Greenspan says economy will start to fade ‘very dramatically’ because of entitlement burden.
UNLEASHED: Trump: Damn right we’re thinking of dumping detained illegals into sanctuary cities. This has so obviously been another Trump multi-stage trolling effort. Allahpundit seems surprised.
RICK MORAN: New York Assembly Dems Show Where Their Real Priorities Lie. “Democrats block a bill expanding tuition assistance to the kids of dead soldiers but pass a budget that includes tuition assistance for illegal aliens.”
FLASHBACK: Elizabeth Warren made her mark helping insurance companies use bankruptcy to avoid paying asbestos claims. If she were a Republican, this would be a big story, and people would be calling her “Mesothelioma Madam” or something.
UPDATED WITH THIS YEAR’S DATA: The Top 100 Law Reviews: A Reference Guide Based on Historical USNWR Data.
PREDICTION: Now You Will Finally See Trump Fully Unleashed.
April 12, 2019
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Pennsylvania Colleges Given Grim Warning On Enrollments.
If only there had been some sort of warning.
GOOD, I LIKE THE STUFF OF THEIRS I’VE BOUGHT. Duluth Trading Company Coming To Knoxville.
OPEN THREAD: The weekend starts now.
UPDATED WITH THIS YEAR’S DATA: The Top 100 Law Reviews: A Reference Guide Based on Historical USNWR Data.
REALCLEARINVESTIGATIONS: FBI Man’s Testimony Points to Wrongdoing Well Beyond Spying.
From the end of 2015 to the end of 2018, Bill Priestap was assistant director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division, which meant he oversaw the FBI’s global counterintelligence efforts. In that role, he managed both of the bureau’s most politically sensitive investigations: the inquiry into Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified information and the probe into whether Donald Trump or his campaign conspired with Russia to steal the 2016 presidential election. His testimony provides rare insight into the attitudes and thoughts of officials who launched the Russia probe and the probe of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, whose final report is expected to be released very soon.
More important, his testimony contains extensive indications of wrongdoing, including that the FBI and DoJ targeted Trump and did so with information it made no effort to verify. It paints a portrait of the Obama-era bureau as one that was unconcerned with political interference in investigations and was willing to enlist the help of close foreign allies to bring down its target. And, perhaps presaging a defense to Barr’s claim that American officials had spied on the Trump campaign, it showcases the euphemisms that can be used to disguise “spying.”
Stay tuned.
K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: High School Suspends 2 Students for Posting Gun Range Photos on Snapchat, ACLU Files Suit. “Sharing our completely legal weekend activities on Snapchat should not result three days of in-school suspensions.” Nope, it’s an abuse of power for which the school officials should be shamed and punished.
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HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Is there a No Republicans Need Apply sign in Academia? Yes. Next question?
I’m pretty certain that Michael Mann didn’t intend for Manhunter to be a how-to guide.
I DON’T DOUBT THEM, BUT PEOPLE HAVE BEEN SAYING THIS FOR YEARS TO NO EFFECT: GAO: Current Federal Fiscal Situation Is ‘Unsustainable.’
THEORDORE DALRYMPLE: Sacking Scruton — All too predictably, the British government dismisses the distinguished philosopher from an architecture commission.
Via what Stacy McCain has dubbed “ransom note editing” in an interview Roger Scruton gave to a publication he previously wrote a regular column for. Just think of a good chunk of British media as Labour Party operatives with bylines (and airbrushes) and it all makes sense.
QUESTION ASKED AND ANSWERED IN YOUR DAILY TREACHER: lhan Omar: Why Aren’t You Racists Yelling at George W. Bush about 9/11? Because in any dispute between Muslims and non-Muslims, Muslims are always the victims.
Read the whole thing.